The First Post

After I had the idea for this blog and before I settled on a topic for this first post, I attended a dinner discussion that set out to explore the relationship between intellectualism and faith. At said meeting, I proffered two positions: first, that the theoretical and practical mutual exclusivity of the two concepts is both artificial and intellectually dishonest; and second, that somehow the act of taking offense - either intellectually or emotionally - to a faith-based or intellectual position may have contributed to the aforementioned divide between the two abstractions.

A comrade of mine picked up on this latter point, affirmed it, and extended it by suggesting that those who take offense to a particular intellectual, moral, or even general perspective/expression demonstrate either a personal insecurity or a less-than-resolute ownership of an intellectual position, to which a fine young woman responded by crying and whimpering through the tears that it "hurts her feelings when someone disagrees with her," for she "really cares about what other people think [about her]."

Well break out the lollipops and songbooks and let's all dance around the rainbow of happiness, consensus, and downright communal agreement.

When did disagreement become taboo? When did free expression of thought, opinion, worldview, and criticism become an act to be avoided at all costs? When did impudence find itself unfairly linked to free speech?

I have neither the will nor the time to explore the history of political correctness and speech control and the effect of each on our present culture. But I offer this story as a starting point for the following blog; may this forum be a place for the open exchange of ideas, the confrontation of grim realities, the critical analysis of difficult but fascinating theories, and the reflection on our own convictions...

...and may it also be a repository of the generally fatuous, boorish, and downright hilarious that inevitably weaves its way into our daily lives.

So with a nod to both the ironic and prescriptive reading of this blog's title: Here's to the Banal Stories.

Cheers.